Cicada Health Tech Hub
"Ask an Expert"

Connect with Brandon Capital

Brandon Capital is Australia’s leading life sciences VC, manages over $1 billion and has an active portfolio of more than 30 companies in therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, and digital health sectors.

Connect with Brandon Capital’s investment team to gain invaluable perspectives on what life sciences VCs look for in investment opportunities, receive feedback on commercialisation strategy, development plans, and commercialisation grant opportunities such as CUREator plus.

Additionally, if you are a researcher or clinician at the Westmead Health Precinct and would like to discuss your project in detail, please contact us to organise a 1:1 meeting with a brief description of your project, your affiliation(s), and contact details of the commercialisation manager/tech transfer manager at your organisation.

Prashanth Rajan, Analyst
Brandon Capital

Prashanth will offer you invaluable perspectives on the investment process and how to tailor your approach to meet investor expectations. He will help you learn about what life sciences VCs look for in opportunities, receive feedback on commercialisation strategy, development plans, and commercialisation grant opportunities such as CUREator plus

Brandon BioCatalyst, Australia’s leading life sciences VC, manages over $800 million and actively supports more than 30 companies in therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, and digital health sectors.

Availability:
In-Person at the Cicada HealthTech Hub -
Every Thursday morning | 30 minute sessions

Sean Harris, Director
Prime Financial Group 

Sean has worked in R&D tax for over 10 years, with a technical background in Biotechnology from QUT. The Prime Financial Group specialises in assisting life science companies with an integrated service offering, with a track record of working with hundreds of life science companies undertaking a broad range of clinical research activities in Australia and globally. Prime can help you with:

• ESIC (Early-Stage Innovation Company) advice, structuring of the company
• Virtual CFO
• Accessing the R&D Tax Incentive & Loans
• Annual financial and tax compliance & Capital Raising
• Employee Share Scheme advice

Brendan Brown, Principal
Prime Financial Group

Brendan is a Chartered Accountant and Registered Tax Agent. With over the past 20 years at Prime, he has worked closely with hundreds of life science companies and has also built strong relationships with the Venture Capital and Contract Research Organisation communities, and was involved with successful companies such as Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, Fibrotech and Hatchtech, where he acted as Company Secretary, CFO and R&D tax advisor.

Bruce Murray, R&D Tax Consultant, FundFindrs 

FundFindrs helps businesses secure funding through grants, traineeships, and awards. Offering a 'no win, no fee' approach on key grants like the R&D Tax Incentive. Bruce has previous experience at Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) / AusIndustry within the R&DTI program, managing and accessing R&D Tax Incentive applications in line with legislative requirements. Specialising in these applications, Bruce has assisted R&DTI applicants assessing eligible R&D activities and related expenditure.

Bruce and the team at FundFindrs can help you in the areas of:

• R&D Tax incentive
• Grants
• Awards
• Traineeships

Bhavin Raval, Experienced CFO with startup & scaleup companies 

Bhavin is a seasoned CFO with over 20 years of experience in the biotech and startup sectors across the USA and Australia. Known for driving strategic decision-making and facilitating business transformation, Bhavin has played a pivotal role in senior leadership teams, including the noteworthy acquisition of Calimmune Inc. by CSL for a milestone based consideration of USD 416 m. Bhavin excels in guiding startups through critical phases of development and empowering startups to achieve immediate financial targets and establish a framework for long-term success.

What Bhavin can help you with:

• Financial strategy and capital management
• Operational excellence during startup to scaleup journey
• Strategic planning, growth, exits
• Risk management and mitigation
• Investor relations and corporate governance

Neil Deacon, Managing Director
Health Advance Connect 

Neil has over 14 years of global experience in strategy consulting across the health and life sciences ecosystem. He has worked with a diverse range of organisations, including major pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, medical device companies, life science start-ups, academic consortia, government health departments, hospitals, and primary health networks.

Through Health Advance Connect, Neil supports early-stage companies with business and operational strategies, strategic execution, and navigating the complexities of the health and life sciences landscape.

Neil can help you with:

• Supporting the development and articulation of successful business strategies.
• Navigating the health and life sciences ecosystem by identifying customers, payers, and partners for your business.
• Advising on strategies for engaging stakeholders effectively.
• Building Target Operating Models / Business Models

Adam Wardell, CEO, Principal Consultant
Previsior

With over 25 years of experience in health, Adam is the CEO at Previsior, a boutique life sciences consultancy specialising in strategy, innovation, and commercialisation for health technologies. Spanning pharmaceuticals, biotech and digital health products, Adam has a proven track record of bringing innovation to the market, guiding and mentoring startups and established companies through the complexities of launch and scale-up. Passionate about putting Australian innovation on the global stage, Adam and his team can provide comprehensive guidance tailored to your startup’s specific needs, specifically:

• Commercial Strategy
• Value Proposition Design
• Business Model Innovation
• Go-To-Market Modelling (& Voice-of-Customer)
• Business Development Strategy
• Pathways to Partnerships
• Becoming Investable (mapping value inflection)

Sarah Cummings, Managing Partner
Thames Consulting 

Sarah has over 25 years’ experience developing and delivering products and services across financial, health and education for both large and small companies. She specialises in supporting startups and scaleups to create effective communications and impactful pitches as well as designing and implementing practical operational governance programs.

Sarah can help you with:

• Communication strategy and collateral
• Pitch decks and presenting
• Defining and implementing operational governance frameworks and processes

Aaron Cheang, UX Research & Design Consultant
Personix

Design & user research experts at Personix can help you make more effective product decisions in successfully getting your product to your customers quickly. Aaron here can help start-ups like you by helping you:

• Define your product/project problem
• Identify your market segments
• Optimise methods to get rapid feedback on your product
• Ideate and create solutions to your product's problems
• Test your solution(s) to get meaningful feedback

Vanita Smith
Founder and Coach 

Vanita brings a broad range of experience from over 20 years in the innovation, strategy development and product development space in the Food and Health, as well as safety, compliance and auditing for early-stage business. She also runs a coaching business for professionals in healthcare and business to help them develop and implement their own Health and Wellbeing strategies.

She can help you with:

• Understanding a clients needs
• Dealing with burnout in companies
• Ideation for start up companies

Tara Sharma, Managing Director
Innov8Search 

Tara is the managing director of Innov8Search with an extensive career history in healthcare, life sciences and executive search and has an unparalleled network across the ANZ region. Innov8Search is ANZ's leading technical and executive search partner, supporting search and recruitment services in the medical device, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, life sciences space across ANZ.

Tara can help with connecting you with specialist C-Suite advisors and consultants in your space, including:

• CEO, CFO, COO, CTO's
• Medical Affairs Directors
• Marketing Directors

Gordon Malouf, Med-Tech Venture Partner
Cicada Innovations 

With over two decades of experience in the medical device industry, Gordon has held key roles in Applied Research, Product Development, Technical Due Diligence, Product Marketing, Program Management, and Medical Affairs. His most recent venture as a co-founder of an in-house medical device startup has successfully scaled up across five countries with hundreds of units sold into the United States, securing reimbursement from both the Federal Government and major private insurers.

Gordon is passionate about innovation and the collaboration between Product Development, Marketing and Evidence Generation. His extensive international experience has equipped him with a distinctive perspective on teams, culture and communication.


Gordon can help provide advice for your medical device journey on:

• R&D
• Product Development
• Clinical Validation
• Evidence Generation Strategy
• Medical Affairs

Kea Dent, Director
KD&A Regulatory Consultants for Medical and IVD Devices

With over three decades of experience in the medical device sector, Kea possess a wealth of expertise, having worked as both a medical device manufacturer and regulatory consultant and QMS specialist for medical devices and IVDs. Kea can offer medical device regulatory solutions for manufacturers, sponsors, legal representatives, and distributors around the world.

She can help you with your medical device projects by providing:

• Regulatory Strategy (TGA)
• Product Certifications (TGA and global regulatory product)
• Technical Files and Quality Management System (QMS) ( ISO 13485/MDSAP)
• QMS implementation, certification, maintenance, and regulator audits

Denis Dmitrenko, Director
MedSec Testing 

MedSec Testing specialises in cybersecurity testing for Medical Devices. Denis has over 20 years of experience in delivering Cybersecurity, Software Development and Testing services across industries such as MedTech, Government and Finance. He leads a team of cybersecurity experts, software engineers, and testers dedicated to developing secure code and ensuring the quality and security of their solutions.

Denis can provide consultation for early developers on topics including, but not limited to:

• Cybersecurity Strategy and Framework
• Cybersecurity Regulatory Requirements for Medical Devices
• Secure Code Practices
• IEC 62304 Software Development
• AI Platforms, Data Modeling and Analytics

Nicolette Muller, Principal Consultant
QA/RA Dynamics 

MNicolette is a seasoned Quality and Regulatory expert with a proven track record of guiding both multinational corporations and startups in the development of medical devices and pharmaceutical products. She has successfully implemented ISO 13485 and 21 CFR 820-compliant Quality Management Systems, identified optimal manufacturing solutions, and facilitated product registrations with regulatory bodies such as the TGA (Australia), FDA (United States), and European Notified Bodies for CE marking.

Nicolette can help you with:

• QMS creation, certification, audits
• Regulatory strategies
• Product registrations FDA, CE Mark , TGA
• Development – Risk management, Verification and Validation testing, Usability Engineering

Lukas Spoegler, Regulatory Affairs Expert for Medical Devices
Johner Institute New Zealand

With extensive experience across Germany and Australia, Lukas has managed international registrations and developed regulatory strategies across major markets, ensuring compliance and market access for every variety of medical devices, including Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), providing coverage across all related areas including technical documentation, and Quality Management Systems (QMS).

The Johner Institute New Zealand consists of a global team of experts, with representatives worldwide - including Australia and New Zealand, supporting both established companies and innovative startups, helping them bring their medical devices to market in a timely manner and in compliance with laws, regulations and guidelines. They can help you with:

• Regulatory strategy development for global markets (e.g. Australia, Europe, US) including Regulatory Due Diligence
• Quality Management Systems (ISO 13485)
• Technical Documentation
• Market access and approval pathways for medical devices
• Knowledge transfer to enhance your team's skills through workshops or by providing access to the Medical Device University, an e-learning platform

Hayley Cameron, Medical Device Consultant
SeerPharma 

Hayley has over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries with key roles and Management experience across a range of Departments including Production, Quality, Regulatory.

SeerPharma is a team of consultants that provide best-practice advice, training, software solutions and more to pharmaceutical and medical device companies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, assisting companies who are designing and developing new biotechnologies, medical devices and software as a medical device, to help companies take their ideas for new products to market.

They can help with:

• Computer Systems Validation
• Quality Management Systems
• Regulatory pathways to market
• Clinical Trial planning